Kym's New Old Table

This is a table I built for my sister-in-law. She had a very specific idea in mind for my to build. She wanted a table that looked old and somewhat care worn. This was a style that was not something I had much desire to work in. However after I got into it I ended up enjoying the project very much. The wood came from a 100+ year old share croppers house in a rural section of North Carolina that was being torn down. I culled out as much wood as I could from the house, being careful to not bring home any of the termites infesting this house. Getting the wood into a useable state took a great deal of time. The number of nails were unbelievable. They were old cut nails. Many did not want to come out. Even after getting what I believed was all of the nails out I still did a number on my planer knives. I do think that in the end the results were worth the aggravation.
I left as many imperfections as I could. The nail holes, knots, checks, all added to the character of the table. I am not a big fan of pine, but this very old southern yellow pine that had been seasoning for a hundred years was another story. It was hard and close grained. I used a hand drill with a flap sander in it and went over all of the parts to give is an uneven and worn look. I then uses a flutter sander to soften all the edges. I used an unusual stain. I used roofing tar. I used the kind in the tube. I squeezed a little out and took a rag soaked in mineral spirits and worked it into the table. I think it made the table look more “aged” than stained. After all was said and done I enjoyed this project very much and would not mind at all working in this style again, especially since my sister-in-law says it is very fashionable right now. I have enough of the wood left to do one more table not quite as big as hers.

chris- prep was the biggest challenge. you would think you had a piece nail free and then run it through the planer and BAM there is a shiner. The biggest challenge of the build, or rather the most exausting, was using the hand drill with the flap sander. That wore me out.

Dick- a job like this one you have to go into it knowing you will be sacrificing blades to the nail gods.